Ancient Brain Removal
New Study Uncovers Deliberate Brain Removal and Crafted Bones in Iron Age Scotland
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Key Points
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The study says the marks represent what could be the “first clear evidence” of deliberate brain removal as a burial practice in Iron Age Britain.
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The adult woman was believed to be “over 30 years old,” and the other individual was a younger male relative (helping frame the burial as involving an older adult rather than a young person).
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Researchers identified specific postmortem modifications beyond general “sharpening”: the adult woman’s long bones—including the arm (humerus and ulna) and the leg (femur)—seemed tapered toward the ends, consistent with whittling/working them into sharp points.
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Although the motivation is described as hard to interpret, Dr. Laura Castells Navarro suggested the manner in which the woman’s remains were “reassembled and deposited in the cairn” could indicate “reverence and respect.”
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Castells Navarro emphasized the cut marks’ regularity—saying the “scrapings look too regular and too straight to be made by any natural agent” and concluding “some kind of sharp implement was used” to remove the brain.
Researchers have found what may be the first clear evidence of deliberate brain removal as a burial practice in Iron Age Britain. A study published in Antiquity examined the 2,000-year-old remains of an adult woman buried at Loch Borralie in northwest Scotland — and found straight, parallel cut marks inside her skull, along with a fracture at the skull base consistent with intentional brain extraction shortly after death.
The woman, believed to be over 30 years old, was buried alongside a juvenile male in a low stone cairn. Her long bones — including the upper arm, forearm, and thigh — were also shaped into sharp points, consistent with being worked into tools. Despite the invasive treatment, her bones were carefully reassembled and placed back in the cairn, a detail researchers say may signal ritualized respect rather than violence.
Cut Marks Too Regular to Be Anything but Deliberate
Lead researcher Dr. Laura Castells Navarro of the University of York says the evidence is hard to explain away. The scrapings inside the skull look "too regular and too straight to be made by any natural agent," she told University of York News. A sharp implement was used, she concluded. A fracture at the base of the skull — near the foramen magnum, the opening at the skull's base — suggests someone deliberately opened the head to access the brain soon after the woman died.
Cardiff University archaeologist Richard Madgwick agreed the skull was clearly manipulated but urged some caution. He told Smithsonian Magazine that proving brain removal as a standardized ritual requires more than one primary example. Still, the study's authors say the marks rule out animal gnawing or decomposition. Reflectance Transformation Imaging — a technique that uses light to reveal surface details invisible to the naked eye — was used to document the cut marks with high precision.
Bones Shaped into Tools, Then Buried with Care
Beyond the skull, three of the woman's long bones were modified after death. The humerus, ulna, and femur were all tapered toward their ends — whittled into sharp points in a way researchers say is inconsistent with animal gnawing. Popular Science reported that the modifications are consistent with working bones into functional implements, though whether the tools were used by the living before burial or shaped purely for symbolic reasons remains unclear.
Dr. Castells Navarro says the modifications fit within a known Iron Age "tradition of care" around the dead. "Our understanding is that this bone modification is within that same tradition of care," she said, according to Archaeology Magazine. The fact that the altered remains were then reassembled and deposited in the cairn — rather than scattered — suggests a deliberate, meaningful sequence of acts. Cannibalism has been raised as a possibility by some outlets, but the study authors say they favor a ritualized or venerative explanation.
DNA and Isotopes Reveal a Wide Coastal Network
Ancient DNA confirmed the woman and the juvenile male were most likely maternal second cousins. Isotope analysis of their tooth enamel — which records the chemistry of water and food from childhood — showed both grew up roughly 50 miles southeast of Loch Borralie. That means they were buried far from where they were raised, implying travel or relocation later in life, according to CTV News.
The genetic data also links the pair to communities in Orkney, about 110 miles to the northeast, and Applecross, about 140 miles to the southwest. Ancient Origins reported that researchers see this as evidence of a maritime travel network along Scotland's north coast, where small groups moved periodically between coastal and island communities. Professor Ian Armit, who leads the COMMIOS project at the University of York, says the findings challenge assumptions that Iron Age Britons were largely sedentary.
Why Scotland's Soil Preserved What Elsewhere Did Not
Iron Age burial evidence is scarce across Britain because most communities practiced cremation or excarnation — leaving bodies exposed to the elements — which leaves almost nothing behind. The Loch Borralie site survived because of an unusual combination of factors. Wind-blown shell sand in northwest Scotland creates an alkaline, calcium-rich environment that offsets the region's normally acidic soil, slowing bone decay, according to Popular Science.
The stone cairn itself — measuring roughly 7 meters by 3.5 meters — provided additional physical protection for over two millennia. The site was first flagged in 1998, when burrowing rabbits dislodged bones from the mound. A formal excavation followed in 2000. The new analysis, published June 10, 2026, is part of the European Research Council-funded COMMIOS project and involved specialists from the University of York, the University of Bradford, and Harvard University's Reich Lab.
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